Sunday, 6 October 2013

Assembling a royal seat

The Dasara is the Nada Habba
of Karnataka and the best place to catch all the action is Mysore, the city of palace and home to the
Royal house of the Wodeyars.

Mysore is all decked up for the Dasara and the magnificent
Dasara procession is just a few days away. The procession on Vijayadashami,
marks the culmination of Navaratri and it has generally been held in the
afternoon.

If the highlight of the first
day of Navaratri is the Wodeyar scion, Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wodeyar,
ascending the throne, the procession with a caparisoned elephant carrying the
golden howdah is the main event of the last day.

Thus, the magnificent Golden
throne and the Golden howdah have always remained an integral part of the
Dasara celebrations of Mysore.

While the howdah is a
permanent structure, the throne is not.

The throne has to be
reassembled just before the start of Navaratri and this year it was reassembled
in a two-hour exercise on October 5.

It was brought out from the strongroom
of the Main palace in Mysore
on Sunday under the watchful eyes of Pramoda Devi, wife of Srikantadatta
Wodeyar, his aides and officials of the
Mysore Palace Board.

The throne was assembled by twenty
five villagers from Gejjagalli near Mysore.

Every Dasara, villagers of
Gejjahalli and two others villages-Sakahalli and Kesare-come to the Mysore palace and
volunteer their services to the Royal family during the duration of
Dasara. According to palace records,
these villagers have been helping the royal family conduct the Dasara ever
since the capital was shifted from Srirangapatna to Mysore in 1799 after the fall of Tipu Sultan.

Even today, 30 families of
Gejjagalli, Sakahalli and Kesare form a core group which helps the royal family
discharge numerous duties and rituals during the Dasara.

These villagers are nor
regular employees of the palace. They set aside all their personal work during
Dasara and volunteer theoir services. A group of villagers from Gejjahalli help
in reassembling the golden throne.

There has been no incident of
theft ever since they offered their services to the royal family from 1799. No
wonder, their services are sought out even today. The royal family and the
Palace board provides the volunteers with traditional dresses and each of them
is assigned duties such as bringing out the royal elephant, royal horse, royal
cow, royal camel, carrying the royal insignia, royal standard, torch and
forming part of the Khasa or private durbar. Some call out the achievements of
the royal family during the darbar and act as standard proclaimers or royal
criers.

With the villagers displaying
their loyalty through centuries, they have been given the important task of
assembling the throne at the auspicious time. They have also served food to the
royal guests and assisted the Wodeyars during royal burials too.

These volunteers, about 20 of
them, commenced the fixing the throne at the auspicious time in the presence of
Pramoda Devi, other members of the royal family and palace authorities. Once the golden lion is
fixed on the throne at an auspicious time, the Yuvaraja takes the ceremonial
oil bath of Yenne Shastra as Kannadigas call it.

The assembling of the throne
includes fixing the main seat known as Kurmasana, the umbrella over it and the
series of steps leading to the seat. This task was completed as priests
performed special rituals.

The rituals included Navagraha
and ganapati homas by more than 12 palace priests. Soon after, a curtain
was drawn to mask the throne till the Yuvaraja ascended the throne.

The throne is used for
conducting the khasa durbar during the Navaratri period.

The throne will be on display
for the public from October 5 to October 13 after which it will be dismantled
and returned to the strongroom.

The throne itself is a
subject of several myths and legends. Even its origin is shrouded in mystery. While
many historians believe that it was a gift by the Mughals-some say Aurangzeb in
1700- to the reigning Wodeyar, Chikadevaraja, others say it was gifted to Raja
Wodeyar in 1610 by either Srirangaraya, the Viceroy of Srirangapatna or
Venkata, the Vijayanagar Emperor.

Even Vikram Sampath, the
author of an excellent book on Mysore, called Royal
Splendors of Mysore, acknowledges the mystery of its origin.

Popular legend ascribes the
throne to the Pandavas and later to the legendary Vikramaditya and Bhoja Raja.
The throne was subsequently buried in Penugonda, now in Andhra Pradesh. The
then Rajguru of Vijayanagar, Vidvaranya,
helped Harihara, the founder of the Vijayanagar along with his brother
Bukkaraya, to retrieve it.

Kampiliraya of Kampli got the
throne from Hastinapur and he buried it in Penugonda when Muhammad Bin Tughlaq
invaded the Deccan in 1327. Kampiliraya died
fighting the Tughlaq. His Kingdom then included Andhra Pradesh, Chitradurga,
Shimoga, Raichur, Bellary,
Hubli-Dharwad.

The throne remained hidden
underground till 1338.

The golden throne is a
fabulous structure and it features a tortoise seat, a staircase with seven
steps, a golden umbrella with creepers, an elephant, a horse and soldiers and
is emblazoned with an ivory plaque, precious stones and jewels. The holy
trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are carved
out of gold.

The throne was earlier used
during the coronation of Wodeyar kings. The throne was found in a store room
when the British stormed Srirangapatna on May 4, 1799. It was subsequently
returned to the Wodeyars who have since been its guardians.

The last time people saw an
Emperor or Maharaja (Srikantadatta Narasimharaja is a Yuvaraja and not a
Maharaja.) holding darbar and sitting on the royal throne or Ratna Simhasana
was Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar in 1969.

The throne, its legend and
other details are described in detail in the Sanskrit book, Devathanama
Kusumamanjari written in 1859 by Mummadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar, the King of
Mysore.

By the way, one of the best
description of the Mysore Dasara, including the Woedyar Emperor ascending the
throne and the Jamboo Savari on Vijayadashami is by Govinda Vaidya in 1648. He
was a court poet of Ranadheera Kantirava and he has left us a detailed account
of Navaratri and Dasara. The first pictorial representation of Dasara is also
during this period.

However, an earlier
description of Navaratri and Dasara in Mysore
and surrounding areas of south Karnataka is found in the book, Bharatesha
Vaibhava, by Ratnakara Varni, the court poet of the Odeyar (not Wodeyar of Mysore)
kings of Karkala in 1557 and thereabouts. Much of his description is based on
the conduct of the festival in Mysore
and south Karnataka.

A much earlier and more
elaborate description of the Jamboo Savari in Vijayanagar with Krishna Devaraya
leading the procession in all its splendor is by the Portuguese traveller Paes.